Twins win!!

So the Twins were at least able to salvage one game here - a 7-3 victory over the Mariners on Thursday. Johan Cytana improves the record to 6-4, even if he was only able to go 5 innings. He only gave up one run in thos 5 innings, lowering the ERA to 3.16, which will further move him up in the AL ERA race, where he was sitting in 8th just 5 days ago.

1. Jose Contreras - 2.54
2. Mike Mussina - 2.67
3. Roy Halladay - 2.89
4. John Lackey - 3.06
5. Johan Santana - 3.16

And of course, Francisco Liriano's 2.44 ERA would lead the league if he the innings to qualify.

Joe Mauer continued his assault of the ball, going 3/4 with a couple of doubles, raising the average to .379, which he's built up a nice lead in as far as the AL (and MLB goes). At this point, I'm inclined to just call him Chairman Mauer like Bat-Girl and now TwinsGeek. Oh yeah, and he's only 23 years old.

Joe Nathan finally got some action in there... only it was a 7-2 game. But hey, at least he wasn't used in a tie game in extra innings, right!? Nathan did give up a run, raising the ERA to 2.25, but he always seems to struggle a little when nothing's really at stake. Which is ok with me as long as he's good when the game's on the line, and he usually is.

Juan Castro went 2/3 as well, which may not have been a good thing, because it just gives the Twins more excuses not to call up Bartlett. Make that 71 days on the Bartlett Watch.

Twins head home now to take on Baltimore for a 3-game stand, with Brad Radke starting against Rodrigo Lopez. Let's just say that any type of decent outing will help Radke's ERA, which now sits at 6.42. As always, check out Seth Speaks for good Minor League info.

Let's go Twins!